A lot of couples like to get those fun, old-timey pictures taken together. Others like to get romantic looking, holding-hands-in-front-of-a-landscape picture.

Then there are the pictures that Haruhiko Kawaguchi are taking of couples which are about as far from cute and ‘awww’-inspiring as you can imagine.

Using a plastic bag and a vacuum, Kawaguchi shoves the loving couple into the large, clear plastic bag, seals it shut and then uses the vacuum to suck all the air from the bag effectively shrink-wrapping the couple like a bag of meat. For about 20 seconds, the couple have to endure the pressure, their ears popping and a lack of oxygen. Kawaguchi steps up on a box, snaps a couple pictures and then opens the bag to let air back into the lungs of his subjects.

Haruhiko (who prefers to be called ‘Hal’) has snapped over 80 couples for this, his latest project called ‘Flesh Love’. The process hasn’t been without incident. Men tend to panic more than women. One guy peed himself. ‘Hal’ now uses a lubricant to cover his subject’s skin since the tightening bag causes friction when the plastic bag begins to press against the skin.